Russia has registered its first case of using a drone to extort money using a dummy homemade explosive device. The incident occurred in the Marushkinskoye settlement of New Moscow, where on the evening of March 12, 2025, a quadcopter hovered over a private house. The drone dropped a note addressed to the head of the family and an object that looked like explosives onto the property. The message stated that an order had been placed for a large sum of money on the son of the owner of the house, and that to cancel it, it was necessary to immediately transfer bitcoin — the equivalent of 7,2 million rubles at the current exchange rate — to the specified crypto wallet. The man ignored the request and contacted law enforcement agencies. It was established that his son is currently outside the country.

According to the Telegram channel Mash, the dummy explosive device did not pose a real threat, but the fact that a drone was used for psychological pressure was a disturbing precedent. The police have launched an investigation, classifying the incident as an attempt at extortion using unconventional methods. Experts are already studying the device to determine its origin, and are also analyzing data from surveillance cameras in the area to find suspects. It is preliminarily known that the drone was controlled remotely, and the note was composed using publicly available data about the family, which indicates preparation on the part of the attackers.

This case was the first in Russia when a drone was used for criminal purposes in this way, although drones have previously figured in other crimes. In December 2024, the FSB prevented a terrorist attack in Moscow, where it was planned to use a UAV to deliver explosives to a military facility, Kommersant reported. At the same time, in the Belgorod region, a Ukrainian drone dropped a failed device on an electrical substation, as reported by Gazeta.ru. The growing availability of technology, including quadcopters, is causing concern among the authorities: according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2024 the number of incidents involving drones in Russia increased by 35%, including smuggling and espionage.